Architect of the Byzantine Legacy Essay examples

Through the chaos and anarchy from the destruction of Rome emerged a powerful empire. It all began in 323CE when a young general named Constantine became the Emperor of Rome. He was quick to make some changes, including moving the imperial capital from Rome to Byzantium, but he renamed it Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire was separated from the Roman Empire’s collapse so it managed to survive and maintain order in the east.

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Despite the collapse of the Roman Empire, Europe still stood, separating into two different areas, governed two different ways. Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire had very different government structures. The Western half became Western Europe with popes, and princes ruling at that time. The Eastern half became The Byzantine

Last but not least, the crusades led to the decline of the Byzantine Empire by demolishing their economy. The Annales Herbipolenses demonstrates the Christians were so desperate for help, they took any and every person to fight, they did not require any person to be skilled. The crusades weakened the economy making people want to fight due to how poor they lived their lives especially those who held low social status such as serfs or peasants. The need for monetary support in the West left them vulnerable and ultimately led to the sacking of Constantinople (Doc 3.) This writer is anonymous but by the location of the writer, the writer must have had a Germanic nature, therefore the information must be valid because Germany was a Catholic nation,

In 395 A.D., the Roman Empire split into the Eastern and Western Empires. Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire and thrived under the leadership of Justinian, who was the emperor from 527 A.D. to 565 A.D. Although the empire has some Roman influence, it is remarkably different from ancient Rome, with there being markets and products from places unheard of. Justinian also enforced Christianity and built the Hagia Sophia and created a new legal system, the Justinian Code. He also rebuilt Constantinople and made it safe from invasions. Justinian created a new Byzantine Empire through enforcing Christianity, creating the Justinian Code, and the exterior and interior structures of Constantinople.

Though Justinian, a Byzantine emperor, led a unique empire, he did essentially revive Roman culture and values. Geographically, ancient Rome and the Byzantine Empire were very alike. The map in document 6 indicates the Byzantine Empire controlled North Africa, and land around the Mediterranean, which is similar to ancient Rome. Cultures usually depend on geographic locations, therefore, since the empires had very similar locations, their culture too were alike. In society, both empires adopted Christianity and trade played an important role. These geographic and cultural similarities show that the Justinian Byzantine Empire revived Rome, and prolonged it’s legacy. Ancient Rome built multiple architectural feats, such as the Colosseum. Using

In 323 a young roman military officer born in Moesia successfully defeated three other generals to become the Emperor of Rome. The young Romanroan officer was named Constantine he quickly made two decisions that would change European and Middle Eastern history. First, he gave Cchristianity legal standing and moved the imperial capital from Rome to Byzantium a small seaside trade town in modern day Turkey. Constantine relocated the government for two reasons: for one he wanted to be able to pay closer attention to challenges from Persia. He also wanted to be near the spiritual and cultural richness of cities like Jerusalem, Nicomedia, and Ancient Troy. Constantinople lavishly built up Byzantium and renamed it after himself Constantinople.

From the first emperor, Augustus, to emperor Constantine, Christianity was illegal. During that time Romans practiced the Pagan religion which meant the persecution of Christians was legal. The emperor after Constantine, Theodosius, was the one who eventually legalized Christianity. This change caused much controversy and decline throughout the empire. The introduction of Christianity especially had a major influence of the decline of Rome.

Rome, a prosperous empire was greatly on the rise from 500BC - 500AD. Experienced many new architectural achievements including the aqueduct, Hadrian’s Wall, The Colosseum, and the Pantheon. But during the late stages in the empires existence, the western part was invaded by barbaric Germanic tribes who wanted to take the Roman empire over. The west eventually fell, but a new empire arose which is essentially “The New Roman Empire” The Byzantine Empire. They Byzantines incorporated Roman architecture, laws, and religion into the founding of the Byzantine Empire.

Greek and Roman architecture is truly amazing. They each had great ideas, and fabulous productions. It is said that the Pantheon is to Italy what the Parthenon is to Greece. Both are tremendous monuments that reek of culture and history. Each had a purpose which was displayed by the design and construction of each. There are such great meanings behind each of these architecural structures. The Romans and the Greeks alike worshipped and dedicated their structures and designs to the Gods and Goddess they believed in.

Alaric did not want to sack Rome, and tried various ways to reason and negotiate with the romans. Starting at the end of 408 ad, the goths army remained outside of Rome in an attempt to force them to meet their demands. The Goths remained there for over a year-and-a-half, creating their own empire to pressure the roman emperor into paying them. Eventually, Alaric’s army began to grow impatient and desired to attack. In august, 410, Alaric was almost successful in negotiating with the romans, convincing the emperor of Rome, Honorius, to meet with him. However, instead he was attacked by an ally of Honorius, who tried to kill him. Alaric survived the attack and gave up trying to negotiate, finally allowing his army to sack Rome. The Goths succeeded in sacking Rome, leaving them weakened. This was the first successful sack of Rome for over 800 years. The goths took some prisoners and destroyed and looted parts of the city. However, the attack was fairly restrained for the time, as many buildings were left intact and relatively few citizens were killed. This event was still enough to cause significant damage to the Roman

Eventually, Aleric and the Visigoths invade Rome and tack over some of the Western Empire. The Vandals came next in the invasion of Rome and they too took some of the precious Roman territory. Odoacer, a German warrior becomes king of Italy and disposes of the Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustus and the Western Empire ceases to exist. After the Western Empire fell the Eastern Empire thrived and continued on for another thousand of years known as the Byzantine

These invasions resulted in multiple changes in the Empire that ultimately weakened it. As the various invading tribes moved into Roman territory, they destroyed the farmland and fields they passed through. This decreased agricultural production in the Empire (Spielvogel 186). Then, in the late fourth century, the Huns moved west out of Asia, forcing the German barbarian tribe of Visigoths, a sub-tribe of the Goths who had previously invaded Rome, to move south and west into Roman territories. They were allowed to remain on Roman land for a time, but when the Romans tried to force the tribe out, the Visigoths fought back, leading to a great military defeat for the Roman Army in 378 at Adrianople in Greece (Spielvogel 187). The Roman Empire was never able to recover the numbers

Called the “Eternal City,” Rome emerged as the capital city of a powerful Republic at about 508 BC. Roman culture was greatly influenced by that of Greece, and Rome too emerged as a center of art and literature while also making vast contributions to the development of technology, war, law, and architecture in the Western world. With the Roman Empire’s dominance over most of Europe, the city of Rome became and remained the richest, largest, and most politically important city in the Western world for almost a thousand years, clearly defining it as world city that made its mark on the pages of history. This great wealth was demonstrated through the luxurious nature of the society, which included numerous intricate and architecturally stunning public baths. Another example of Rome’s extensive resources and capabilities is the Roman Coliseum, which represented a feat of architecture and engineering at the time and was used for all sorts of spectator events. Rome also became known for its close ties with the Catholic Church, being established as the center of the Church by the Pope and remaining a “holy city” for centuries. Eventually the illustrious Roman Empire declined due to a combination of economic problems, which gradually affected the empire, and invasions, which were its ultimate downfall. With the end of the Roman Empire came the end of Rome’s capital status, which was transferred instead to Milan. Despite eventually losing this

Then Justinian comes, being one of the greatest, if maybe the greatest of the Byzantine emperors. The author highlights,